Governor Sununu Questions President Trump’s “Absolute Authority” to Reopen the Economy and Reacts to NH Legislature Suing the Governor Regarding Spending Federal Stimulus Money.
In an interview with Chris Ryan, Governor Chris Sununu discussed President Trump’s claim that he, not the governors, has absolute authority when it comes to reopening the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sununu stated, “I’m not going to opine on his statement or where it came from.” The Governor then what on to explain that just as it was the governors who tailored the recommendations of the CDC-Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies to close nonessential businesses and to impose social distancing regulations. It will be the governors of each state who will actually make the decisions on how and when to relax the regulations. He added that the governor of Montana has a very different situation than the governor of New York. Also, a governor’s decisions need to be somewhat in sync with the governors of his neighboring states.
There are several decisions which Governor Sununu is considering about how to relax the social distancing restrictions. A decision about restarting schools will come next week. The Governor believes that the reopening of society and the economy should be gradual because we want to prevent a second stage of the disease which would undo what has been accomplished by closing nonessential businesses, etc. Also, if the virus were to flare up again, it would be necessary to lock things down quickly. Decisions about how to gradually restart restaurants will be made after consulting with people in the food service industry and with public health being the prime consideration.
To illustrate the difficulties of being in charge, Governor Sununu shared that he recently received a petition signed by 8,000 New Hampshire residents who were demanding that he reopen the golf courses. On the same day, he received a similar petition with the same number of signatures demanding that he close the state parks.
Just as there have been constitutional questions about executive power in the federal level, we are having constitutional questions about executive power on the state level.
On Monday New Hampshire’s Democratic legislature sued Republican Governor Sununu in Hillsboro County Superior Court North over control of the spending of $1.25 billion in COVID-19 grant money. The legislature maintains that the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee’s approval is needed before Governor Sununu can spend money from the grant.
In the interview with WKXL, Governor Sununu explained that during the current crisis that it is frequently essential that he act quickly and decisively. As an example, he told about a recent purchase of masks which had to be done instantly or the masks would not have been available. The Governor has been consulting with a bipartisan advisory board of eight legislators, but he is willing to abide by the decision of the Superior Court and a constitutional crisis will be averted.
